AUBURN HILLS -- The blue moon rose, hell froze over, the 12th of never arrived, and the Detroit Pistons beat the Chicago Bulls on Sunday.

No, honest, they did.

After 18 consecutive losses and almost five full seasons of uninterrupted futility against their Central Division rivals, the Pistons finally broke their longest active losing streak against any opponent in a 99-85 victory at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The Bulls were short-handed even though they got Joakim Noah back from injury on a limited-minutes basis. Luol Deng joined the ranks of Chicago injured who missed the game, which included Taj Gibson and the regularly absent Derrick Rose and Rip Hamilton.

That didn't matter to the Pistons, who were playing without Jose Calderon -- Rodney Stuckey started at point guard, with Will Bynum returning from a six-game absence with a strained right hand to back him up -- and had Andre Drummond in foul trouble virtually the entire game.

So beyond the 0-18 stretch against the Bulls, the Pistons also were battling against a 1-18 record this season in games Stuckey started previously, as well as a 0-8 streak in home games dating to a Feb. 13 win over Washington.

No matter as the Pistons (26-52), who trailed by 11 points in the first quarter, took control in the second and third quarters, then stretched the lead to as many as 16 points in the fourth.

Jonas Jerebko had his best game of the season with 17 points and a season-high nine rebounds to lead three bench players in double figures. Charlie Villanueva scored 12 points and Khris Middleton 10 as the Pistons amassed a 43-12 bench scoring advantage.

Brandon Knight led the Pistons with 20 points, his second consecutive 20-plus-point game.

HIGHLIGHTS

--Owen Groesser, the Rochester Hills eighth grader who became an overnight national celebrity when the Down Syndrome student hit a couple of 3-point shots in a January game, was a guest of the Pistons. He accompanied head coach Lawrence Frank onto the court and sat on press row.

--Frank said Jason Maxiell, who had surgery to repair a detached retina and is out for the rest of the season, is "in a little bit of discomfort, just from the natural pain of having surgery" but is resting at home.

LOWLIGHTS

--Calderon is considered day to day but Frank made it clear that the Pistons want his strained right triceps tendon to heal before the veteran point guard sees the floor again. "What we're not going to do is yo-yo him back and forth," Frank said. "We want to get it right before he comes back."

--Corey Maggette, who had his broken nose re-set last week, wasn't even known to be injured. He didn't know it either. He suffered the injury when Khris Middleton elbowed him during a one-on-one game in mid-March in Oakland and found himself not breathing properly and his wife complained he was snoring loudly, which led to the discovery.

--The Pistons had possession to start the fourth quarter but the ball was awarded to the Bulls. Nine seconds elapsed before the scorer's table was able to alert officials and re-start the quarter.